Amazon to open cashier-free Go store in former Chevron...

1of3A worker, right, looks at the ID of a shopper at the wine and beer area inside an Amazon Go store in Seattle in January 2018. Amazon Go stores operate without cashiers; there are two in San Francisco, and the company just announced a third.Photo: Elaine Thompson / AP

2of3A worker installs Amazon Go signs at the future cashierless store at 575 Market St., which will be the chain’s third location in San Francisco.Photo: Roland Li / The Chronicle

3of3San Francisco's 575 Market St. was Chevron's headquarters until 2001. It will soon house the third Amazon Go store in the city.Photo: Roland Li / The Chronicle

Amazon will open its third cashierless San Francisco store as it expands further into brick and mortar locations.

The Seattle retail giant said it soon will open a 1,750-square-foot Amazon Go store at 575 Market St. near the BART’s Montgomery Street Station. The 40-story building was one of two towers that made up Chevron’s headquarters from 1965 to 2001, until it moved to San Ramon. It is on the same block as Amazon’s main San Francisco office at 525 Market St.

All three San Francisco Amazon Go stores are near major job and tourism hubs. The first opened in October in the Financial District at 300 California St. A second store opened in December at 98 Post St. near Union Square. Pre-made and packaged food and drinks make up the majority of products.

The company also has four Amazon Go stores in its Seattle hometown and four in Chicago.

Amazon Go could grow to be a $4 billion business by 2021, Mark Mahaney, an analyst at investment bank RBC Capital Markets, wrote in a January research note. He estimated annual sales of $1.5 million per Amazon Go store and average annual sales of $853 per square foot, higher than sales of $570 per square foot for traditional convenience stores. Amazon Go is a threat to urban convenience stores like Walgreens, as well as quick-service restaurants like Subway, but a lesser threat to suburban businesses, Mahaney wrote.

Bloomberg reported in September that Amazon may open up to 3,000 Amazon Go outlets by 2021, but the company has not confirmed that report.

Amazon is said to be growing even further in traditional retail.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the company is planning a new grocery store brand that is separate from Whole Foods, which it bought in 2017. Los Angeles will get the first Amazon grocery store by the end of the year, and additional stores are planned in San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia, the Journal reported.

Amazon also operates bookstores and “4-star” stores with some of its most popular products around the Bay Area and country. San Francisco’s largest Whole Foods is set to open in 2021 at Trinity Place in Mid-Market.

Roland Li covers commercial real estate for the business desk, focusing on the Bay Area office and retail sectors.

He was previously a reporter at San Francisco Business Times, where he won one award from the California News Publishers Association and three from the National Association of Real Estate Editors.

He is the author of “Good Luck Have Fun: The Rise of eSports," a 2016 book on the history of the competitive video game industry. Before moving to the Bay Area in 2015, he studied and worked in New York. He freelanced for the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and other local publications. His hobbies include swimming and urban photography.